Lore:Nova Sector
 Nova Sector |
Other Names: The FrontierTechnically, there are many "frontiers" across SolFed, but in the playable area of the game, Nova is always the closest and most relevant frontier., Nova, Orbiters of Iblis |
Nova Sector
The Nova Sector is a region of space on the edge of SolFed territory. Nanotrasen owns the region, by SolFed’s decree, and operates several research stations across the various celestial bodies. This is where the game takes place, besides a few Gateway destinations.
Topography
The Nova Sector is an Anomalous Zone centered around the star Iblis, hosting one major orbiting planet, Indecipheres, with two moons: Freyja and Boletus. The Anomalous Zone, to our knowledge, is responsible for a significantly higher rate of spontaneous anomalies and abstract phenomena, including non-standard fatality/mortality ratios.
Indecipheres is an anomalously volcanic planet, whose surface practically convulses, shifting fresh ores to the surface in almost an intentional lure. The planet is inhabited by two main civilizations, the primitive Wanderers, and the Ashwalkers, wielding mystic arts bestowed onto them by the Mother Tendril, whom poets describe as “the heart of Nova and the source of her power, she who withholds you from your final hour.” Scientific studies have inferred that the amount of energy expended by the planet’s surface far exceeds the amount of solar energy conferred by the star Iblis, thus qualifying it as Anomalous.
Freyja is an icy moon, orbiting Indecipheres at a good distance, insulated from both the heat of the sun and the infernal heat of hell by distance and cloud cover, though the heated fury of Indecipheres still reigns scorching hatred through impossible portals channeling an infinite legion of deadly creatures to patrol the wastes, and the occasional meteoric capsule of lavaland itself. Freyja herself is far from innocent, trapping her Icecat colonists amidst deadly oceans of chilling liquid plasma, just as deadly and free-flowing as the Tendril’s lava. Plasmamen are baptised in these seas, born anew on the flammable frost tides as creatures of rot and regrowth.
Boletus is an even smaller moon of Indecipheres, close enough to maintain a less-frigid climate. The planet is infested with life, from milder grasses and deer to vicious mushrooms and other deer. Early attempts to colonize the Nova Sector avoided Boletus by coincidence, and later attempts, with a bit more intention behind them, found failure here just as equally. The tri-colored mushrooms, for lack of a better term, resist intruders to the mycelial network, intentionally failing to permit useful plants from growing. The grass is edible only to the dopiest of fauna, the mushrooms yield little pliable wood, and also sometimes they just fucking bite you. As a result, Boletus holds the most mystery and the least ruins, though this is liable to change as archeologists and explorers grow bolder in the coming years.
Iblis, the star itself, is at best a secondary character in the Nova Sector. Obviously uninhabitable, just like practically every other star in the universe. Iblis is what is known as a “Brown Dwarf,” in that it is not hot enough to sustain nuclear fusion, instead fusing deuterium and potentially lithium. As a result, Iblis emits very little visible light, instead exuding larger amounts of infrared light. This results in the surrounding space being lit primarily from ambient stars, the surface of Indecipheres, and indirect light from other structures.
Solar panels, despite massive improvements over 500 years, only function at about 4 times the base efficiency of the earliest solar panels, as a result of the diminished light spectrum available. Plants found in the Nova Sector still use green chlorophyll despite mismatching the available light as chlorophyll absorbs enough energy from infrared light that other evolutionary pressures have taken priority. Additionally, many of the plants in the region were introduced comparatively recently. Note that the “plants” that have been here, lavaland plants and the Boletus mushrooms, aren’t very green, and thus draw energy from other sources or different chlorophyls. Additionally, they tend to be fungi, resulting in a vastly unearthenly ecosystem. Freyja’s plants tend to have come from the colony ship Stjarndrakkr, and are thus essentially still Sol plants.
Most civilizations successful in the Nova Sector lay in the comforting nothingness of open space. The heart of Nova thrives in orbital platforms, servicing orbital stations, catering to Bluespace transit and tourism, and servicing auxiliary installations planetside. These include self-contained pharmaceutical labs, underutilized hotels, absolutely just a nondescript derelict pile of debris (but not the kind that’s legally flotsam, stay away), inactive branches of logistics solutions (of varying legalities), and a whole bunch of unsuccessful ventures currently available for salvage and spelunking.
Interlink
Notably, the “Interlink” serves as the primary hub for transitioning from galactic travel routes to local shuttlecraft, where Nanotrasen employees dock to discover which station they’ve been assigned to today, with bare-bones accommodations to permit a base level of surviving and thriving, yet still firmly encourage tourists and crew to transfer to the active station. Partially carved into a sturdy asteroid, the Interlink is distant enough from Indecipheres and the stations to remain insulated from the worst of the anomalies and terrorism, though not distant enough to service other star systems.
Between shifts, a Central Command-endorsed Interlink Transition Team facilitates debriefing, security handoffs, decontamination, and trickier revivals, ensuring the crew is refreshedOr at least "conscious." by the opening of the next station. Small, utilitarian cabins are freely available to facilitate synchronizing employee circadian rhythms, and are thus intended for short-term use. The Interlink stores and compresses cryoslept persons (who are transferred via pod from the various stations), with a specialty set of cryosleepers affectionately known as the “Ghost Cafe”So-called because of the unexplained haunting moans and discrete stores of ectoplasm. redirecting their wards to various non-descript relaxation facilities or off-site housing. The specific map of the “Ghost Cafe” is non-canon, and so is your participation there, but the Ghost Cafe often serves as an excellent backdrop for stories you make and retain with your characters.
The Interlink is not a place to aspire to reside in. Some crew do live on the Interlink, either renting some form of meager on-site apartment or hopping between open cabins and eluding the “Cleanup Crew,” like a homeless James BondAssuming the fictional character James Bond has a home to begin with.. Most crew commutePedantically, all crew commute. The ones who don't are considered "squatters" and respond only to lethal force. to work, from residential complexes or towns in adjacent star systems. Central Command perpetually has some initiative designed to “solve” the “crisis” of “employee housing,” so keep an eye out for affordable, subsidized suburbs coming soon to a sector near you.
Others are known to rent parking around the Interlink, orbiting the asteroid and partaking of amenities (e.g. communications, wastewater, oxygen, meteor shielding) as they live inside personal spaceships. As spaceship upkeep grows exponentially with size and occupancy (and thus docking fees), it’s economically unfeasible for anyone below high command to live out of more than an apartment-sized ship. Contrary to popular belief, the “AVAmployee of the Month spot” is not an official Interlink rewards program.
History
Historians assume that the universe formed in some sort of Big Bang several million years ago, presumably putting a lower bound on when the Nova Sector was formed.
The name "Nova Sector" comesThe official Batman Beyond music video, Mephisto Odyssey's Crash. fromFallout New Vegas landlubber fans, who can't stand the C. theA community poll. locals'The Chesapeake Bay region's name for NOrthern VirginiA. nameA misinterpreted acronym on a form; it was supposed to indicate No Voice Actor, No VA, and OCR mistook that as the sector name. forOriginally Va Elohim, but a correction to remove the first word instead became the name. theNameable Only Via Acronym. bioluminescentThis word means that the plant glows. ash-grown Novaflower, which colonists call "Fire Blossom" anyways because novaflowers are a descendant of sunflowers.
Historic Occupants
In the 1920s, the Unathi split off from Tizira for undisclosed reasons, scattering in numerous ships. While the majority would settle on Moghes, a significant number of Unathi researchers would be led to the Nova Sector. Researchers of the Ashwalkers note these Unathi as the first Ashwalkers, as according to local folklore, the “first” Ashwalkers were called by their Mother to come home to Indecipheres, where presumably they were adapted to the harsh environment and molded to Her design. Thus, Ashwalkers have been here since the 1920s, and it is possible that most ruins on the ever-shifting surface came from some previous iteration of Ashwalkers. Given Indeciphere’s nature, it’s entirely plausible that even earlier travelers came and did not leave, or that other travelers arrived later but never interacted with what we consider Ashwalkers.
We hold almost no understanding of the history of the “Wanderers,” yellow-and-gray beings known for strip-mining, coordination, and guitar-strumming. Attempts to communicate with them have proven mute, and attempts to exterminate them have proven legally and ethically questionable. They seem entirely unrelated to the Ashwalkers, however.
In 2251, during SolFed’s First Great Migration, the colony ship Stjarndrakkr uses FTL transit to arrive at Freyja, aka ‘Niflheim’, unfortunately detonating in low orbit. Survivors genemod to adapt to the climate and breed to become modern Icewalkers.
Presumably, the various Colonial Seed Vaults littering the sector, tended by “Primal Pod Persons,” came from 2100s-era Earth, though the story of when they arrived and when they awoke will be unique across vaults, and even today some are just now starting to flourish.
Civilized Settlers
Many groups claim to be the “first” to settle in the Nova Sector. Presumably, dozens of First and Second Great Migration settlers arrived, staking a claim and falling victim to the harsh realities of the orbiters of Iblis.
Eventually, a reliable mining presenceI don’t think we named the previous mining company. Y’wanna just say it’s Akhter Company, the Cargo Imports company who does the flatpack fabricator / mining drill / fatpack flabricator? managed to cement itself atop the tectonic tides of Indecipheres, taking the approach of scattered but uniform outposts, built cheaply to sustain only a few workers. These mining outposts would later be acquired by other companies, and the model of small-group inhabitancy proved to be the only reliable means to maintain a non-orbital presence.
That is, a bunch of folk tried to make big cities and those failed miserably, but like Interdyne’s 6-person outpost and the Mining Station’s 4-cabin 4-building formation manage to not disturb Indecipheres’ wrath too harshly.
Though numerous resources proved mineable and extractableRequired to be mentioned after the Magnet Moon of Moncarta Massacre, in which iron was mined from a magnetic moon, and the magnetic forces grounded every ship attempting to remove the iron. Really dumb in hindsight., the Nova Sector was neither unique nor productive to the point where it would be considered “prosperous.” For the longest time, Nova was known as a distant mining town, capable of supporting 50,000 full-time colonists with mild galactic profits, and no other significant industries.
Tarkon established numerous warehouses, serving as the main cargo provider for the Nova Sector during this era of modest prosperity. The Twin Nexus chain of hotels established a few chains, servicing the local needs and hosting the occasional frontier-rustic or big-game-hunter tourist. Other companies and startups established orbital establishments, including space churches, clothing sweatshops, cloning sweatshops, etc., with varying levels of notability.
Interdyne held perhaps the strongest claim to local fame behind Tarkon, as their attitude towards pharmacies, research, and frugal self-sustainment kept them competitive as regional healthcare, even with countless orbital medical research facilities who just didn’t seem to get the Frontier Spirit.
Nanotrasen endured. According to the Nanotrasen Historical Accuracy Marketing Team, only Nanotrasen saw the true potential of the Nova Sector, that while the anomalies were to be feared, they were also to be studied. As outsiders to the Nova Sector, who already managed a few other star systems, Nanotrasen was “welcomed with open arms” and “immediately endeared by the natives” who “invited their leadership at every opportunity.”
Despite the overwhelming “love and support,” Nanotrasen’s early inquest into the Nova Sector proved slow and unprofitable, bleeding money into unfavorable purchases from the mining companies, Tarkon, and Interdyne just to keep a research station running.
War
The year 2557 is hotly debated amongst Historians, primarily against the Nanotrasen Historical Accuracy Marketing Team. The basic premises, that some portion of the Void Imperium’s forces engaged in some notion of hostility upon the frontiersmen of the Nova Sector, and that Nanotrasen existed at the time, are undisputed. Every other aspect of the published Nanotrasen Revised History Lesson yields at least two scathing long-form holonet posts every time it is re-revised and disseminated.
Yes, Petty Captain Bun’gly Cor InfirmumDirectly translated, “Heartsick”. Not a very subtle Taj, as further evidenced by the raid. of the Void Imperium did attack the Nova Sector, but in a standard cruiser, not a “Pantheon” of Angels. This was not a bold, calculated assault designed to cripple SolFed, but a pillaging resupply raid from a ship desperately lost out of formation, hundreds of light years from its intended conflict. Historians refer to this as the “2557 Void Imperium Raid of the Nova Sector,” or more accurately, they do not refer to it in any significance, and certainly do not hype it as the marketed “Void Imperium Apocalypse of Infinite Wrath.”
Yes, this brief skirmish did destroy numerous civilian infrastructures and frighten away a strong majority of the “survivors,” but the casualty rate of non-combatants was in the dozens, certainly not the “focused decimation of hard-working loyal SolFed citizens.”
Yes, Nanotrasen Admiral Leon RendenHelming the NSV Slim Chance. did ultimately destroy the Imperium cruiser and stop their looting of the planets’ resources, but only after the frontiersmen’s organized militia already inflicted critical damage to the cruiser while defending their homes.
Yes, Nanotrasen did acquire most of the mining company’s abandoned mining stations, but they were not “given freely as a gift to their immaculate saviors;” Instead, the mining company was already in the process of divesting from the sector due to a critical lack of regional manpower… due to the noble sacrifices of said regional manpower against the foreign attack.
What is it good for?
At the conclusion of the Void War, SolFed’s war chest was significantly depleted and the SFAF’s debts needed to be paid in anything but money. While SolFed had previously been content to leave the Nova Sector self-governed and postpone the various Sovereign Corporations petitioning and bidding for legal ownership of the star, once it came time to settle war debts, these bids proved fortuitous to finally make good on.
Despite Interdyne, Tarkon, and Cybersun’s variously solid bids and interests in the Frontier, and the Heliostatic Coalition’s vague requests, control of the Nova Sector was ultimately awarded to Nanotrasen.
Furious holonet rants infer that the awarding was not, as Nanotrasen posited, “for [their] intense valor in the face of absolute annihilation, saving the entirety of SolFed from a desperate flanking attack from the Nova Sector, our motherland,” but perhaps bribery, serendipity, survivorship bias, or the Ichamur PrincipleAwarding a symbolic fiefdom to an underling so they cannot complain about insufficient rewards. The fiefdom often does not hold significant value. This may not be applicable here, as the Nova Sector holds a non-zero amount of value to the galaxy and to Nanotrasen. Proponents of this theory may be undergoing a “Sour Grapes moment.”. Regardless of rationale, the Sol Federation formally chartered the Nova Sector to the Sovereign Company Nanotrasen in December of 2559.
Under New Management
With Nanotrasen's ownershipUntil the fall of SolFed, which simultaneously will never happen and happen sooner than you'd think. of the Nova Sector came a few changes, responsibilities, and benefits.
The Losers
Interdyne, with far fewer locals to service, did need to scale back in quantity and diversify the function of existing facilities, including xenobiological research, experimental virology, and bioterrorism through the deadly disease Hereditary Manifold Syndrome and her patented ever-shifting treatment Sansufentanyl. With most folk in the sector under Nanotrasen’s banner, and NT hosting their own medical staff, Interdyne now primarily occupies the niche of premium healthcare in the sector.
Tarkon lost most of its local fleet and logistical dominance in the Void Skirmish. Ironically, previously-damaged Tarkon facilities tended to survive with short-range ships docked, allowing freshly unthawed workers a second chance at economic prosperity. In Tarkon’s absence, Nanotrasen was able to negotiate an advantageous contract with a more galactic logistics company, bringing them in to handle the Frontier’s cargo needs.
As a direct competitor to Nanotrasen in several markets, overt Cybersun holdings were immediately seized or evicted. Unrelatedly, several derelict ships lost in debris fields “never” got salvaged and remain “uninhabited entirely,” putting out zero outgoing radio signals like any good abandoned derelict ship with zero inhabitants or malicious purpose does.
Nanotrasen’s Rules
See the Nova Sector Charter for specifics.
As the permanent entrusted custodian, curator, and owner of the Nova Sector, Nanotrasen holds the star Iblis and all orbital planetoids in full sovereignty as a SolFed member state (Pedantically, Nanotrasen is the state, which is disjoint across the various stars they own). Nanotrasen is permitted and expected to handle domestic threats as they see fit, with their own laws (Corporate Regulations) so long as they do not damage another SolFed member state, or SolFed itself. To that end, relations with non-SolFed foreign powers are unregulated, and while Nanotrasen is incapable of declaring war on SolFed’s behalf, SolFed won’t interfere with any private wars against outsiders, either. Unless they decide to anyways, or there’s slavery involved, or taxes aren’t paid.
Like all member states, Nanotrasen has the option of soliciting SolFed Marshals and other Emergency Responses, who’re stationed at a nearby star / patrol route servicing several states simultaneously, but at prices that strongly suggest that Nanotrasen try to deal with the problem themselves first. The Marshals are intended to strictly address larger concerns like piracy, and under no circumstances take direct orders from Nanotrasen itself, but with a large enough budget, a “fine for improper use” is their de facto price point.
Nanotrasen is expected to yield any warships when SolFed needs to federalize NT military units in response to a conflict, which places them under the SFAF chain of command. Distressingly, NT is under no obligation to have warships to begin with.
Other Companies and Nations
In theory, Nanotrasen could evict both Interdyne and Tarkon, but in practice: with what army, with what map of Nova that points out every single six-person residence, how would that make money, and how would that improve Nanotrasen’s galactic standing?
Nova’s Interdyne pays a nominal property tax to the Nova sector Nanotrasen for an undisclosed number of facilities, which keeps the status quo. Thus, the Sovereign Corporation of Interdyne Pharmaceuticals is not compelled into costly retaliatory hostile business practices with the Sovereign Corporation of Nanotrasen. In short, neither company is so deeply invested in the Nova Sector that they’re willing to risk galactic conflict over it.
Tarkon’s local stations are just starting to wake up, but given the current dominance of Nanotrasen in the region, they’re not a threat to the status quo despite still being rather liked by whatever frontiersmen remembered them from before the Void Skirmish. Outside of Nova, Tarkon’s still an established logistics company, if not a major player.
For similar reasons, while Nanotrasen has the right to close borders and forbid FTL traffic, that’s neither feasible nor desired. Interdicting FTL is difficult without forewarning, patrolling a large space border is essentially impossible even with FTL, and traffic and tourism are good actually? Shockingly, people willingly come to the Nova Sector, partaking in the bars, restaurants, various hunts, nightclubs, and crew. While it’ll never top any travel guides, and absolutely this place is still dangerous as all get out, the Nova Sector is shockingly enjoyable.
Boons
The Nova Sector, under Nanotrasen rule, functions as you see in-game. The sector’s centered around a dozen research stations, each the main hub for research, power, healthcare, and tourism while it is active. As summarized in the lore primer, the Nova Sector holds many treasures and bountiful opportunities:
Research
Nanotrasen calls the various stations and ships in the Nova Sector “Research Stations,” despite their multi-function, and it is not because of some sort of tax dodge or grift. These stations are one of Nanotrasen’s finest establishments for loose, adventurous experimentation and research. The volatility of the region offers unique advantages to R&D that companies in safer locales would kill to acquire.
Not only are the stations relatively cheap to rebuild, given the local abundance of resources, but the planet itself uniquely resists permanent change. For most planets, a 100 Megawatt Artillery bombardment would leave a lasting crater and lifelong geopolitical scandal, but for the ever-shifting tectonic surface of Indecipheres, it is a Tuesday. Because of the surface’s anomalous properties, the damage is unfindable within a day and presumed fully repaired within a week.
Plasma Research: Plasma is a volatile, exotic matter, coexisting as a solid, liquid, and gas at room temperatures, and is highly flammable. While Plasma can be found across the galaxy, it is most often found around anomalous zones for varying reasons. Various scientists suggest that plasma is strongly linked to bluespace and where the dimensions intersect awkwardly. In their words, if bluespace crystals are an open wound in the veil, plasma is the scar tissue or bruising. Of course, these scientists fail to coherently elaborate further.
Plasma is common enough that all of SolFed uses it in some capacity, yet rare enough that the Plasma Clique is able to hold a strong monopoly on the distribution thereof. Having an unrestricted source of mineable Plasma means research is no longer a choice between powering life support and learning about fire. In a pinch, small amounts (read: what a typical station can produce) can be exported without international incident, though Nanotrasen is nominally “not in the business of exporting unlicensed plasma.” While there aren’t laws strictly forbidding private plasma transfers, in practice, defying the Plasma Clique is defying SolFed itself and will certainly lead to being disfavored in international affairs.
Bluespace Research: Bluespace is a higher dimension with varying effects on reality, concentrated around the physical mineral Bluespace Crystals. Often associated with teleportation, or more scientifically, compression, these crystals match their incredible powers with diabolical rarity. Bluespace crystals are found freely in anomalous zones such as the Nova Sector, providing enough spare that the station is readily able to invest crystals into devising and reinforcing experimental designs.
Bluespace crystals are widely used for FTL travel, and are often worth their weight in goldNot to say that’s very much., so most research facilitiesneed to rehash the same argument from Plasma Research, except less flammable. find acquiring unprocessed crystals to be a challenge. Indecipheres yields enough Bluespace crystals to entice the bold into perilous combat, but not with quantity or reliability that Nanotrasen would consider needing a dedicated refinery to produce fuel. Still, Cargo appreciates the occasional export.
Anomaly Research: Researching the anomalies in an Anomalous Zone? Shocking. Beyond the obviously weird planets, standalone anomalies simply pop into existence with such lethal absurdity that any ordinary station would immediately perish, optimized past the point of any hope of resilience. Having an office of filing cabinets translocated to the bar is an inconvenience, yes, but for optimized ships, every room holds something vital. Had Nanotrasen not sunk countless man-hours into early warning systems and deep investigations, her research stations would suffer a similar fate.
As it stands, the Nova Sector is one of a few places where anomalies happen frequently enough to research. Most crew are trained to recognize these short-lived anomalies, and if not handle them, report them appropriately. The science team is capable of matching the harmonics of the anomalospheric core through mere radio analysis, halting its varied lethal effects on the surrounding area, and once these “cores” are “neutralized,” are further capable of exploiting these with extreme compressive force, building devices to harness these inert-but-energized sources of strangeness. Hopefully, through study of the function of these novel devices, Nanotrasen can eventually emulate them without the use of a core.
Researching Anominality Itself: AKA: Repeating experiments in imperceptibly different circumstances and mapping the results. The elephant in the room: performing the “same” experiments at the Experimentor for “research points” to produce the “same” blueprints. Were the Nanotrasen Research stations in calm space (ignoring that half of the standard array of experiments wouldn’t be possible), these identical experiments would yield identical results, and the resulting products would function identically. Anomalous zones, of course, defy expectation, and as such these experiments yield marginally different results.
By completing a meta-analysis of identical experiments across many days, Nanotrasen has already gleaned several insights into the nature of the Anomalous Zone, and possibly anominality itself. Still haven’t figured out why refining anomaly cores takes exponentially more blast force for each additional core; perhaps some sort of resistance field emanates from the refined cores, interfering with the process within a radius?
Resonance Research: Legally distinct from the religious concept of “souls,” Resonance is the specific pattern of neural activity that gives way to someone’s consciousness in organic and inorganic brain mediums. Specific higher-ups in Nanotrasen speculate that due to the increased Anomalous activity in the region, the connection between a physical body and the Resonance that drives it is looser, and thus is personally funding research into exploring life-saving and life-altering practices. And no, to quell the persistent rumor: the Nanotrasen Employee Contract does not sign over control of your soul or soul-analogue to the Company.Not since 2563. Not since ever, but retrocausally not since Oct 25th 2563. If you have memories of selling your soul to Nanotrasen after that time, no you don’t.
Perhaps as a result of the anomalous zone, or specifically Indecipheres’ Tendril, the death rate is significantly higher than stabler frontiers, but the mortality rate is significantly lower. In layman’s terms, folk die a lot more, but they don’t tend to stay dead so much. Hell, sometimes even Pod People get revived. In the hands of a sane person, this would be horrifying and cause to flee, but in the hands of a megacorporation, the Nova Sector is an amazing place to study the recently deceased and undeceased.
“a term for the specific pattern of neural activity that gives way to someone’s consciousness, was discovered in the early 2500s by researchers Yun-Seo Jin and Kamakshi Padmanabhan, coining what is now called ‘Jin-Padmanabhan Resonance,’ or ‘JP/Soul Resonance.’ This ‘Resonance’ gives off a sophont’s consciousness, their sense of continuation, and their ‘I am me.’ This Resonance can vary in structure and ‘strength’ from person to person, and even change over someone’s life. When the brain of a sophont undergoes death and stops neural activity, then Resonance dissipates entirely and lingering consciousness becomes essentially an echo, rapidly fading over time.”
Development
Political Reasons: As the Nova Sector is on the frontier of SolFed space, it is simultaneously unimportant to SolFed’s logistics, transportation, and commerce, yet important to her federal defense, foreign relations, and claims to the region. Without someone occupying the Nova Sector, SolFed could not claim to be as large as it is, and neighboring regions would have a claim on Iblis, likely the Heliostatic Coalition.
Mining: The surface instability of Indecipheres, and to a lesser extent her moons, rends deeply-buried minerals to the surface, making it an attractive spot for mining teams. Indecipheres pushes new ores to the surface and repairs damage so efficiently, so regularly, that one might be tricked into thinking there was some sort of conscious thought behind the process. Almost as if the planet was luring miners down to mine, to fight on her surface, to duel with her creatures and claim rewards, to get accustomed and addicted to the loop of spreading violence and claiming shiny rocks, to learn the rhythm of the ashen winds and to dance to their unrepentant roar until the distinction between ash and bone holds no meaning, only the everpresent lust for blood, until you too are but a beast for new prey to test their steel against.
Freyja has new ores because the plasma river melts rock and leaves ore.
Tourism: While not near any specific grand landmark or tourist attraction, the Nova Stations remain adjacent to common trade routes and thus attract transients of all forms, for both short and long-term relaxation.
The Nova Sector is a decent waystation between SolFed and parts beyond, so it sees plenty of folk on a temporary stop between adventures. While Nova may not have premium consumer goods, nor industrial quantities of crude, between mining, gas giants, various lathes, and their contract with a cargo company, any traveler can find what they need to keep going in Nova, and enough to keep them occupied while they wait.
The call of the tendril, Indecipheres’ siren song, brings more than just locals to her surface. Indecipheres appeals to the Big Game Hunter niche of bored rich folk, who seek deadly hunts with the illusion of danger and also a competent medical team nearby just in case. This would be significantly more unethical if Indecipheres’ beasts were relatively docile or unintrusive like most “big game” is, but these critters are assholes and are in no danger of extinction.
Pain tourism, where folk come out specifically to witness and participate in the high death rate while enjoying the low mortality rate. It may not be “Purge” levels of sanctioned violence, but folk will pay large amounts of money to travel to where the consequences for violently stabbing a coworker are comparatively insignificant. Plus, who doesn’t love watching people too unfortunate to be able to leave the Nova Sector fight for their pathetic lives?
For some homogeneous cultures, the Nova Sector might be the closest place they can visit to experience “diversity,” witnessing half-xenomorphs working alongside exotic strains of genemodders without hesitation or predation. These folk tend to either stick around the Nova Sector, or head home with their prejudices reinforced.
The research stations contain the legal minimum of amenities to qualify for status as a relaxation destination, and so when various companies require employees to take “mandatory time off”, said employees tend to serve their sentence here in the Nova Sector, for relaxation on a budget.
Work in Progress: Footer subject to change at a moment's notice. Do not take a red link's presence, struck-through or otherwise, as confirmation (or denial) of their canonicity.
